Month: September 2022

VAST DIVERSITY. "All cellular life forms, with the possible exception of some extremely reduced intracellular parasites, are hosts to viruses and/or other selfish elements, such as transposons and plasmids. This ‘greater virus world’ is enormously diverse in terms of replication mechanisms, gene-expression mechanisms, virion structure, and genome structure and size." https://lnkd.in/eqriJpu View in LinkedIn

NO EVE. "Viruses and other selfish elements do not share a single common ancestor; indeed, not a single gene is conserved in all or even most of these genomes. However, selfish elements form a complex, dense network of evolutionary relationships in which genomes are linked through different shared genes. This type of evolutionary relationship is most likely to have emerged from extensive gene exchange." https://lnkd.in/eqriJpu View in LinkedIn

THE MANY EDGES OF EVOLUTION. "The hallmark genes of viruses, those that encode key proteins involved in genome replication and virion formation, are represented in a broad range of elements that form many edges in the evolutionary network." https://lnkd.in/eqriJpu View in LinkedIn

MOBILE GENES. "We all know that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a problem – maybe even 'as big a risk as terrorism' – but how is this resistance passed on from one bug to another? One key culprit is plasmids: these are small 'hula hoops' of DNA that occur naturally within the cells of bacteria (and some eukaryotes) and are completely independent of the main bacterial genome." https://lnkd.in/eNHPm6b View in LinkedIn

DOWNSIDES OF MOBILITY. "Public health officials have raised concerns that plasmid transfer between Enterobacteriaceae species may spread resistance to carbapenems, an antibiotic class of last resort, thereby rendering common health care–associated infections nearly impossible to treat." https://lnkd.in/ei4d4uT View in LinkedIn

CURIOUS CODE. Mobile genetic code elements are rather like viral computer codes gone native. Not part of a complete organism, unregulated scraps of genetic information that can attach to the Master Code of a target organism, mutate and evolve, replicate, cross species, and skip at will to a new host. At times very destructive, at others perhaps accidentally beneficial. Simply weird. View in LinkedIn

MOLECULAR REPLICONS. "Bacterial plasmids are nucleotide sequences floating in the cytoplasm of bacteria. These molecules replicate independently from the main chromosomal DNA and are not essential to the survival or replication of their host. Plasmids are thought to be part of the bacterial domain’s mobilome, a sort of genetic commonwealth which most, if not all, bacterial cells can pull from, incorporate and express." https://lnkd.in/e8wKCHY View in LinkedIn

AUTONOMOUS REPLICATION. "Plasmids are DNA molecules that can replicate independently of chromosomal DNA in a cell. This ability allows them to “collect” and move genes, such as through lateral gene transfer, and is a factor that allows prokaryotic genomes to evolve over time." https://lnkd.in/eRhnEZd View in LinkedIn

SELFISH TO ALTRUISTIC. "Although plasmids seem to behave like selfish genetic elements, they at times also carry metabolic genes and may thus be directly beneficial to future hosts." https://lnkd.in/exyreqd View in LinkedIn

FULL GAMMUT. "Associations between bacteria and their accessory elements (viruses, plasmids and transposons) range from antagonistic to mutualistic." https://lnkd.in/eq8c8PC View in LinkedIn